The American Dream in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Essay

Propaganda filters throughout the world to lean people’s views one way or another. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, he uses George and Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to demonstrate the American Dream. This is unattainable but is their motivation to carry on their daily on the ranch lives. George and Lennie’s actions revolve around their American Dream. In a conversation between George and Lennie they discuss their dream, George states “... We’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres, an’ a cow and some pigs” (Steinbeck, 14). George says this to Lennie to motivate him to keep quiet and out of trouble so they can eventually reach these dreams. The American Dream can be defined as people

In the novella Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, the struggle to achieve the American Dream; sucess, happiness and ownership of land weaves into the life of Crooks, an African American, disabled character who labors in the rural Californian ranch environment of the 1930’s. Throughout the story, Crooks struggles with the constant physical pain from his back, and emotional pain from the prevailing racism of this time period that isolates him from others. Due to his disability and race, Crooks is lonely, isolated and depressed, making it nearly impossible for him to achieve his dream.

A twenty-five percent unemployment rate. People desperate for lodging and food. Families stretching every penny to support themselves. Government trying to solve these problems through reforms and programs. This is what the world in the 1930s was like for Lennie and George, two migrant workers traveling across California, earnestly trying to achieve the American Dream. Even though these dreams seem impossible to accomplish, during the Great Depression a dream was a reason to get out of bed.

If there was a favorable circumstance under which one could endeavour all their hopes and visions, wouldn’t one pursue it? The American Dream was introduced as an interpretation to cause the people of America in the early twentieth century to work tougher. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life one has always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. In the novel, “Of Mice & Men”, John Steinbeck uses symbols and motifs such as the vicious slaughtering of virtuous animals, Crooks’ rubbish bunkhouse and Lennie and George’s deception of an ideal farm to exhibit the perception that materialistic success results in happiness is a major flaw in our thinking about the American dream, and it is this thinking which makes the dream unattainable for many.

People living during the great depression had dreams but on seemed to be the most popular but with their own twist to their dream. The American dream is in the Declaration of Independence stating “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. This dream is called the American Dream. The American dream is a set of standards in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success that can be achieved through hard work and determination. Steinbeck uses the American dream to give each character a goal to work toward to. Each character had their own American Dream. Owning some land so you could live independently, to tend the rabbits or to be playing cards with the other guys.

The most important dream in this novel is that of the two main characters Lennie and George. They

For years upon years, we have heard the concept of an “American Dream” repeatedly. In school, at home, and there’s probably several who have mused about it on their own during their time by themselves. It seems that, also, several have concluded that the Dream is dead: gone, disappeared, poof into thin air. Some argue that it’s nothing but a pack of lies our predecessors were fed to believe that perhaps America had a better future lingering just around the corner, or that it’s changed much from what it was ‘back in the day’. The American Dream has remained unchanged since the Great Depression, but the nation we are today may slowly be killing it. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the Dream is to have that equal opportunity for success, the same as in Bobby Jindal’s and Ellen Powell’s articles, but it seems that inequality may be killing the American Dream.

“Compare the ways in which F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby and John Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men explore the nature of the American Dream.”

It also played a vital part in the moral of Mice and Men. The two of

Motivation is the will to do something. Life has many different levels of motivation; achieving something, attempting to achieve something, and not trying it achieve something. Motivation can be applied to the American Dream. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the levels of motivation are clearly evident, this affects the process of how the characters achieve their dreams. Of Mice and Men is a story of two migrant workers, how they deal with their American Dream, and the troubles of working on a ranch during The Great Depression. The Characters of Of Mice and Men are going through these levels of motivation and achievement. Through the Characters George and Lennie, Curley’s Wife, and Crooks the stable buck, Steinbeck

The novel, 'Of Mice and Men' written by John Steinbeck refers back to The American Dream as 'heaven'. Steinbeck is trying to point out that the American Dream is unrealistic. This novel looks back at the dreams of American individuals in the 1930's. It is set in California at the time of the Great Depression during which the American stock market collapsed leaving the nation in a state of economical disarray.

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck. In the novel, one theme is the “American dream.” The American dream is important to the novel, because it reflects life in 1937. In the past there was a constant struggle to achieve dreams and goals, because only the fittest could survive. The theme of the American Dream is able to contribute to the overall meaning of the work.

In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, it is portrayed in several ways that is impossible to achieve one's dreams due to disabilities, circumstances, and even by the color of one’s skin. In the novel, almost every character Steinbeck writes about has a dream but has no possible chance of living out that dream. Not according to Steinbeck, the american dream is and should be equally achievable for everyone who’s willing to put forth the effort and hardship to make their dreams happen, but Steinbeck shows us differently. Steinbeck shows us that no matter how hard you work, something will always get in the way and shut down the possibility of obtaining the dream. So in other words, no, the american dream is not achievable for everyone in Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.”

The American Dream has always represented freedom and a chance at a new life, but those who have come and lived it realize it is a lie, a lie which we all buy into— why is that? Dreams, in general, are aspirations that all of us have, and it shows what can be achieved, although dreams are something only kept in the mind. Humans hold dreams about their future which are optimistic and idealistic, but in reality, dreams are never obtainable and cannot exist in the real world.

When we try to chase our dreams, we end up in our own diminutive lonely world. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, has taught readers that the American dream can only ever be accomplished through hard work and determination. More times than others, we are distracted by the dream itself, and don’t chase the reality, which can then lead to high expectations, and without hard determination, that can then failure. In the end, we have been lonely for so long, chasing a dream, that when reality hits us, we become isolated and lonely. For George and Lennie, they have each other, until the American dream seemed too hard to chase.